The Good Sister

Fern invites Wally over to her place. Wally can sense something is wrong, as Fern has been communicating to him only via text, leaving out her usual Xs since Rose thinks this would send Wally a mixed message. Wally notices Fern has moved most of her things out and asks her if she is breaking up with him because he took her to the restaurant. Fern says she is breaking up with him but not because of the restaurant incident. Wally suspects the break-up has to do with Rose. He tells Fern something is wrong with Rose and that she doesn’t seem to think Fern is a person separate from her own self. Fern lies that she has met someone else. Wally leaves, warning Fern again about Rose.

Though living with Rose isn’t bad, Fern misses Wally terribly. It is as bad as the way she missed Nina after her overdose. Fern would howl with sorrow, which upset Rose because it made her feel like she wasn’t enough for Fern. Since then, Fern has learned to grieve quietly. She fears the third upcoming loss—giving up her baby—may be too much for her to handle. As her pregnancy progresses, Fern is mystified why the process remains so primitive. With all the advancements in science, people still haven’t found a way to make pregnancy and childbirth easier.

Rose accompanies Fern for her first sonogram, listing herself as the mother and Fern the surrogate. Fern feels a rush of love when she sees the ultrasound image of the baby. Rose has a picture printed for Owen, who has sent a Paddington bear as a gift for the baby. He will soon be returning to Melbourne.  Fern is happy the baby will have Owen for a father but is devastated at having to give it up.

As Fern’s pregnancy advances, Rose’s interest in her activities grows “as relentless as it is complete” (207). She asks Fern to sign adoption documents and relinquish her parental rights to the baby. Rose doesn’t want Fern to list Wally as the father in the documents, which Fern finds perturbing. Rose says having Wally’s name as a birth parent would require his consent to the adoption as well. Instead of that complication, Fern could say she doesn’t know the baby’s paternity. Fern agrees to Rose’s suggestion, even though it makes her panic.

Fern’s sensory processing issues are heightened by the warm weather and her pregnancy. The sense of being suffocated is made worse by Rose popping in to visit her at the library. Fern finds Rose’s visits intrusive and does an internet search about how to set good boundaries with Rose. One day, she applies what she has learned online and tells Rose to leave firmly and politely. Fern expects Rose to give her the silent treatment when she gets home since as a child Rose would freeze people off for several days when upset or angry. Instead, Rose has a gift for her: a comfortable maternity dress with a pattern similar to the dress Wally gave Fern. Fern notes that Rose has always been good at mollifying her after upsetting her. She believes that the relationship between sisters is just too strange for regular boundaries to be enforced.

On the second-to-last night of the camping trip, Fern wanted to nap instead of hanging out with Billy and Rose. Billy asked Rose to come with him to the stream so they could skim stones off the water. A nervous but excited Rose accompanied Billy to the river. The two kissed. Fern appeared on the scene, asking them what they were doing. Rose suspected Fern knew she and Billy had been kissing. As Rose went back with Fern, she saw Fern give Billy a look of pure hatred as if she wanted to murder him.

Fern’s coworkers begin to suspect she is pregnant. Fern confirms that she is now six months along. Gayle expresses surprise that Fern didn’t tell them before, and Fern worries if she has committed a social faux pas. She also avoids Gayle’s query about Wally being the father. Meanwhile, Carmel gently nudges Fern toward learning new skills that Fern considers out of her comfort zone. She tells Fern to look between people’s eyebrows while greeting them so she can appear to be making eye contact without doing so. Fern finds the advice helpful. Carmel also makes her take a class on how to IT troubleshoot using the printer and photocopier. Fern is surprised how easy she finds the tutorial.

Fern visits Nina at Sun meadows. Teresa tells her Nina has regressed since their last visit, experiencing something called confabulation. This means her brain is spontaneously making up false memories. Nina has been saying odd things about Rose and a boy named Billy. She sometimes says Billy drowned, and at other times she says he was murdered. Fern shouldn’t take Nina’s stories seriously. Fern knows the stories Nina is telling may not be false.

Fern mentions the confabulation to Rose. Fern worries Nina may say something that contradicts their story of Billy getting tangled in the weeds and drowning. Rose appears unsettled and berates Nina for ruining their lives again. Fern asks Rose if Nina was really a bad parent. Rose reminds Fern that Rose neglected them, exposed them to her abusive boyfriends, and overdosed, leaving them to bring themselves up. Fern still thinks Nina loved them, but Rose says there are things Fern doesn’t understand. Fern knows this part is true because 90% of her memories of Nina are good.